• My Plea This Christmas!

    Date: 2018.12.20 | Category: Love Without Boundaries, Making a difference | Tags:

    LIVE INTENTIONALLY!

    I know Christmas time is crazy.   Rushing around, trying to find the perfect gift, fighting the crowds and wrapping all those gifts.  I know that people feel overwhelmed by the meals and the visits and the activities.   Well, I’m here to say it doesn’t have to be that way.  I realized after we adopted the kids that too many gifts overwhelmed them and they couldn’t even remember what they got a couple of months later.  So we decided to do less.  I searched the web and found many different ideas about gift buying for Christmas.

    We settled on something to read, something to wear, and something to share as a family.

    It’s great because it allows me to find gifts throughout the year and just put them away.  It stops my kids from making huge lists of things they don’t really want but think they do because someone made a commercial about it or put it in an ad with bright, shiny colors.   It brought Christmas back to what I feel is important, celebrating Jesus’ birth and being together as family.

    My very favorite part about this is that when we are out shopping, the kids don’t point to everything saying they want it.  They look and if they see something they really like they ask me to put it on their list for their birthday so they don’t forget.   They always say, “My birthday is to celebrate me and Christmas is to celebrate Jesus.” I like that Christmas isn’t a “me, me, me” time for them.

    I say all of this because I want you to think about what is really important.  All around me there are people I know who are fighting cancer, whose children have recently passed away, people who are widowed and feel alone, people who are struggling.  People are what matter.  People NOT things.

    My time with Love Without Boundaries and adopting our children has completely changed my life.  Before these things I had no clue that so many children went without an education.  I had no clue that your hair, that should be dark, could actually be a reddish/gold color because of malnutrition.  I had no clue what it meant to live without a family.  What it meant to go without medical care.  I had no clue that some children live their lives in a dump and dig hours upon hours a day trying to find recycling material to get enough money to have a meal that day.  I had no clue that so many children were trafficked.  I had no clue that children as young as 6 were babysitting their siblings while their parents worked.

    I lived in a bubble of comfort.  I still do.  I have so much and so many others have so little.  It breaks my heart.  I am no more deserving of these gifts than anyone else.  I truly believe if you have been blessed then you should share.

    So here is my plea this Christmas…

    1.)  Look for that lonely person in church and reach out a hand.

    2.)  Look for that family that could use just a little more help and be that help.

    3.)  Don’t forget the people who are hurting who have lost a loved one this year.  That first Christmas without the one you love is brutal.  Let them know you remember.

    4.)  Look all around you for little ways to help others.

    5.)  Consider fostering or adopting.   So many children are waiting for a family of their own.

    6.)  Give to local food banks, Toys for Tots, and other local charities.

    There is so much need all around us.

    And now for my final plea…

    Please consider a year end gift to Love Without Boundaries.  Yes, there is need all around us.  Yes, we should be doing all we can to ease that need but the need in some of these other countries is so unbelievably overwhelming.  Please consider helping a child get an education, feed hungry children, provide medical care.  We have many in our program that the only meal they get is their school lunch.  We have helped children who once spent all day digging in the dump who finally get to go to school. I am telling you that if you give money to LWB it goes where you want it to go and does what we say it will do.   Check out our website LOVE WITHOUT BOUNDARIES

    Go and be the light you want to see in the world.   Go and be that change!   Go and just do something!  The gift of giving lasts a lifetime!!!